9 Landscaping Business Tips to Improve Operations

1. Optimize your pricing strategy

Analyze your competitors’ pricing and service offerings to determine a competitive, yet profitable, landscaping pricing strategy. Account for all costs to avoid underpricing, including labor, materials, equipment, and overheads.

Offer different service packages—such as basic, standard, and premium—to cater to various customer needs and budgets. And adjust your prices based on demand and any cost increases.

Example: For installing aquatic features like fountains and ponds, calculate the cost of materials (pond liners, pumps, plants), labor hours, and maintenance. Then offer a tiered pricing package that lets your customers choose the option that best fits their needs:

• The basic package includes the pond and minimal landscaping.
• The standard package includes decorative stones and plants.
• The premium package includes advanced features like lighting and a waterfall.

2. Streamline the quoting process

One of the most impactful tips for running a successful landscaping business is quickly generating quotes for potential clients. You can speed up your quoting process by using a landscaping estimate by creating a services list and using a landscaping estimate template.

Providing potential clients with detailed quotes—including labor, materials, and other costs—helps build transparency and trust. And a streamlined process saves time and results in fewer errors, leading to higher conversion rates and greater customer satisfaction.

Example: For building retaining walls, use quoting software to input dimensions, material types (stone, concrete), and labor hours to generate a detailed quote. This speeds up the process and ensures all costs are covered.

With quoting software like Jobber, you can quickly create professional quotes that include itemized lists of services and materials.

3. Use effective hiring practices

Hiring employees gives you more time to run your landscaping business, better serve clients, and even offer more services.

An effective hiring process helps to reduce turnover, improve the quality of your services, and present a great professional image. Here are just a few tips:

• Define the job role clearly: Create detailed job descriptions to attract the right candidates.
• Use more than one recruiting channel: Advertise on job boards, social media, and local community centers to reach a broader audience.
• Network: Talk to people you know in the industry, former colleagues, and other contractors who know where to hire landscapers. The more people you talk to, the more likely you’ll be to find candidates.
• Leverage your existing employees: Your staff can help attract qualified workers since you’ll get referrals from people you already trust. You could even start an employee referral program.
• Use a rigorous interview process: Conduct thorough interviews to assess candidates’ skills and company fit.

READ MORE: 10 questions to ask a new employee before you hire them

4. Automate invoicing and payments

Use invoicing software that automates invoicing and integrates with your accounting system. Automation helps reduce administrative workload, minimize late payments, and improve cash flow.

Clients should be allowed to pay via multiple payment methods, like credit cards, bank transfers, or mobile payments.

For regular services, set up automatic recurring payments to streamline cash flow.

Example: For clients paying for recurring lawn maintenance, set up automatic monthly payments through invoicing software. This ensures timely payment and reduces the time you spend chasing invoices.

5. Track supplies and materials

Use inventory management software to track materials, reorder supplies, and manage stock levels. Material tracking prevents project delays and reduces waste. You’ll always have the necessary supplies, which keeps your team productive and your clients happy.

Create standardized lists for common projects so you always have the right materials on hand. Perform regular stock audits to identify discrepancies and prevent shortages that would delay (or worse, cancel) projects.

Example: For grading projects, maintain a standardized list of materials like soil, gravel, and leveling equipment in your inventory management system. This helps you start projects without waiting for supplies.

6. Improve employee tracking and reporting

Time tracking allows your employees to clock in and out, record their hours, and track progress on projects. Accurate tracking makes everyone accountable, improves the way you manage projects, and helps you evaluate performance and productivity.

Have your staff record notes and take pictures of their work to provide detailed reports of project progress.

Conduct regular reviews based on tracked data to assess performance. Provide your team with feedback to improve operational efficiencies.

Example: For a project involving placing stepping stones, employees can use a time tracking app to log hours spent, record notes on any challenges faced, and upload before-and-after images to document work.

7. Market your business

Marketing helps get your business in front of more people online and in person. It increases visibility on search engines and social media, builds your brand’s reputation, and attracts new customers.

Here are a few ways you can advertise your landscaping business:

Develop a professional website 

To turn visitors into paying clients, your site design should include:

• Service offerings
• Calls to action (CTAs)
• Contact details
• Reviews and testimonials
• Business and contact information
• Team and career info
• A blog or portfolio
• Professional design
• Online booking form

READ MORE: The best landscaping websites and how to build your own

8. Have a weather contingency plan

Keep a close eye on weather forecasts to anticipate and plan for unfavorable weather conditions. This minimizes disruptions to projects and schedules and helps see to project timelines being met.

Be it rain, snow, or worse that may interrupt your projects, create a backup plan for rescheduling projects and reallocating resources. Keep clients informed about potential weather delays and new schedules.

Your plan should let clients know:

• Why it’s best to reschedule for better weather
• You’ll be the one to determine if it’s safe to do the work
• Steps for rescheduling appointments
• What will happen if bad weather continues

Example: If heavy rain is forecasted, reschedule outdoor grading work and allocate the crew to indoor projects like building patios. Communicate the changes to clients promptly to manage expectations.

9. Use technology to optimize routes

Plan the most efficient routes for your crews with route optimization software. Route optimization reduces travel time and fuel costs and increases the number of jobs you can complete in a day.

It allows you to efficiently schedule jobs in the same area back-to-back to minimize travel time and uses real-time traffic updates to avoid delays and reroute your crews.